Rockets concentrate on retaining their free agents

Clint Capela, top left, and Trevor Ariza, top right, key parts of a 65-win team, are two free agents the Rockets will talk with before focusing on recruiting players.

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, Staff Photographer / The Chronicle

Introductions will not be needed, at least not with the Rockets' first sit-downs of the summer.

Pitches won't be needed to sell anyone on the Rockets' plans or potential. When the Rockets begin their free-agent recruiting efforts, they will start by meeting with their players, hoping to keep much of their 65-win team together.

The Rockets' contingent in Los Angeles on Saturday was scheduled to meet this weekend with the five rotation players now free agents — Chris Paul, Trevor Ariza, Clint Capela, Gerald Green and Luc Mbah a Moute — in an effort to keep what works. It won't be easy.

But the Rockets reached the sure-thing agreement with Paul as soon as Saturday's 11 p.m. official opening of negotiations hit, a person with knowledge of the deal said. Paul, 33, will sign a four-year, $160 million deal when the NBA moratorium ends July 6, reaching agreement on four more seasons rather than the full five the Rockets could have given him.

Paul confirmed the agreement Saturday, tweeting "UNFINISHED BUSINESS RUN IT BACK" nearly as soon as the arrangement could be reached.

He averaged 18.6 points and 7.9 assists in 58 games this past season.

The Rockets also agreed to terms with Gerald Green on a one-year, $2.4 million deal, shortly after negotiations opened.

But keeping the Rockets' other free agents will take more of a balancing act; the Rockets quickly lost Trevor Ariza to a one-year, $15 million contract with the Phoenix Suns.

The Rockets did not win a championship, but with a championship-caliber roster face the sort of challenge to keep their players those teams often face, particularly with so many free agents on a roster operating over the salary cap.

The Rockets have Bird rights to exceed the cap to sign Capela. They made the qualifying offer necessary to the 24-year-old restricted free agent, allowing them to match any offer sheet he signs.

The Rockets had been steadfast in citing a determination to keep their steadily improving center, a position that several individuals with knowledge of their plans said has not changed since the end of the regular season. But after a season in which Capela led the NBA in field-goal percentage, was second in blocked shots and averaged 13.9 points and 10.8 rebounds, he could land the sort of contract that would impact how aggressive the Rockets are in other moves.

Capela could be in line for a contract to rival Rudy Gobert's ($102 million over four years) or Steven Adams' ($100 million over four years). Less clear is how many teams will be in position to try to land him.

The Rockets' efforts to keep Capela without having to match a contract that would cause double takes might have been aided with recent developments with teams looking to spend cap room on a center. The Mavericks, a team with ample cap space and a need at center, reached agreement with DeAndre Jordan, who opted out of his Clippers contract to become a free agent and nearly signed with Dallas in 2015. Most other teams that could create enough cap room do not have a need at center or are in position to rebuild around a complementary player.

Still, rather than allow Capela to play the field with plans to match an offer sheet, a strategy the Rockets have used with past restricted free agents, the Rockets could seek a quick agreement when they meet with Capela and his representatives Sunday.

With the Rockets losing Ariza as a free agent, they will likely look for the athleticism they have lacked at the wing position with the potential to develop, hoping to find the kind of bargain move they made last summer when Mbah a Moute signed a minimum contract.

The success of their minimum-contract veterans, Mbah a Moute, 31, and Green, 32, has the Rockets placing a priority on bringing them back, particularly after the faint hopes at landing one of the stars of the summer might technically remain alive even after LeBron James' decision to opt out of his contract severely limited the Rockets' chances at him.

Less than a week after James Harden declared after winning the MVP the Rockets have all they need, they will work to keep what they have and move on to what they want to add.

Jonathan Feigen has been the Rockets beat writer since 1998 and a basketball nut since before Willis Reed limped out for Game 7. He became a sports writer because the reporter that was supposed to cover the University of Delaware basketball team decided to instead play one more season of college lacrosse and has never looked back.

Feigen, who has won APSE, APME and United States Basketball Writers Association awards from El Campo to Houston, came to Texas in 1981 to cover the Rice Birds, was Sports Editor in Garland before moving to Dallas to cover everything from the final hurrah of the Southwest Conference to SMU after the death penalty.

After joining the Houston Chronicle in 1990, Feigen has covered the demise of the SWC, the rise of the Big 12 and the Rockets at their championship best.